Taxes and more taxes

Thursday

Mar 28, 2013 at 3:21 PM

No matter what you think of taxes, you’re probably going to be paying more of them soon.Whether it’s the Terrebonne Parish School Board or Gov. Bobby Jindal, everyone seems to be looking for newer, better methods for prying their way into our wallets and extracting more of the green stuff.

Michael GormanEditorial Page Editor

No matter what you think of taxes, you’re probably going to be paying more of them soon.Whether it’s the Terrebonne Parish School Board or Gov. Bobby Jindal, everyone seems to be looking for newer, better methods for prying their way into our wallets and extracting more of the green stuff.In Jindal’s case, it remains to be seen whether people or businesses will pay more or less taxes than they do now, but the smart money is on more — unless you are part of a favored group of businesses that will be exempted from the taxes they would otherwise pay.In the case of the schools, it’s just going to be more. That’s what the school folks are hoping, anyway.The school system is seeking an unprecedented increase of 31 mills to its property tax. The board currently collects a 9.27-mill tax. Your school property tax — and you pay it, no matter what you might think — is likely to more than quadruple.That is, your tax bill will go up astronomically unless you take part in the process — something school officials hope won’t happen. Why else would they schedule the election for May 4, when there is no larger issue on the ballot. They are hoping for a small turnout that will result in school employees making up the lion’s share of voters.It is up to you to make sure that doesn’t happen. Whether you favor the tax or not, go out and vote. Prove to the School Board and anyone else who might be watching that voters will turn out to have their say on taxes — even if they make it difficult for us.Aside from universal pay raises at a time when the state is moving toward tying salaries to teachers’ effectiveness, the board has also made a promise to upgrade the school buildings across the parish. Oh, and it’s throwing in universal pre-K to add to the attractiveness of its package of expenditures.The problem with the spending plan, such as it is, is that the system didn’t come up with the plan until after it had decided how much money it wanted.What? How far would that kind of planning get you or me at the local bank?One of the reasons school officials keep citing for seeking a more-than-300 percent increase in its millage is that the system currently collects the lowest millage of any school system in the state. That is true, but it tells only a tiny part of the story. The school system also collects a significant chunk of money in the form of sales taxes.This lie is on the school system’s own website, arguing in favor of the tax: “FACT: Residents of Terrebonne Parish pay more to have their garbage collected (11.21 mills) than they do to support public schools.”Nonsense. While the millage devoted to garbage collection is greater than the millage devoted to schools, the residents of Terrebonne Parish also contribute to the schools to the tune of more than 2 cents for every dollar they spend. That sales tax revenue is estimated at $46.7 million for the current year.How much does the garbage tax — you know, the tax that generates more money than the schools take in, according to the school system’s website — generate? According to the parish’s 2012 budget, that revenue was estimated at $7.6 million — less than 17 percent of just the sales tax portion of the schools’ revenue for this year.Perhaps one of the many underpaid math teachers on the schools’ payroll could help the system get a better approximation of the truth into its literature.I don’t know whether the school system needs more money, and aside from the two-page “concrete plan” the system has on its website, I don’t know what it would do with the money.What I do know is that it should be honest if it wants taxpayers to vote themselves a huge tax increase. Unless it doesn’t need them.School officials are clearly hoping they can get this tax passed solely on the strength of the people who will personally gain from it — the school employees.Promising across-the-board raises to everyone, regardless of merit, was a stunningly adroit move, one that could turn out the votes needed to pass this huge tax hike. I live in Thibodaux, so the effects on me will be negligible. But I would encourage everyone in Terrebonne Parish to take more than a passing interest in the tax debate going on around you. You will be paying for it.

Editorial Page Editor Michael Gorman can be reached at 448-7612 or by e-mail at mike.gorman@dailycomet.com.

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